5.10 /// Chaos, Creativity, and the Quest for Downtime..

Celebrating a birthday should be a time of joy and relaxation, but turning 41 amidst a chaotic schedule has left me yearning for some downtime. The past  week have been a rollercoaster, from rushing to Manchester to visit my brother in the hospital, to supporting Sarah through her CF symptoms—all while feeling the bittersweet thrill of the British Superbikes. These experiences have drained my energy, yet I find myself paradoxically anxious about resting. With a December trip to Scotland on the horizon, there’s a glimmer of hope for some much-needed rejuvenation, even as I navigate the whirlwind of daily life.

While the past weeks have been a blur of activity, there's been a silver lining in the form of a creative home improvement project. I've embarked on a mission to transform my workspace into a more organised and efficient haven. From repurposing kitchen cupboards for storage to crafting a DIY MDF work surface, I've been creatively tackling the chaos. This journey is not just about tidiness; it's a reflection on finding balance and embracing clarity, thanks in no small part to Sarah’s support. Catch up with me as I recount this adventure, test new audio equipment, and contemplate a more interactive podcasting experience for the future.

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Chapters

• 0:02 Worn Out and Needing Downtime
• 6:44 Organizing Desk Space for Efficiency
• 14:14 Workspace Organization and Mindful Reflection

Transcript

Stephen: 0:02

Hello, welcome to another episode of Infinite Prattle. Erm, I'm very, very tired. I don't even know what this episode's going to be about. It might be a wild ride. In the words of Arnold from Jurassic Park hold on to your butts. Hello and welcome to Infinite Prattle. Unscrubbed, unedited prattle on everything Hosted by me. Stephen. Listen, like, share, subscribe and enjoy the show. Definitely enjoy the show if you can, if you are able.

Stephen: 0:45

I'm just worn out this week, absolutely worn out. You might have to excuse some bangs and bumps. If you saw the live today on the internet web thing, then you'll see on Instagram that I go live about doing stuff and I'm recording this late. I shouldn't have recorded yesterday. It should have been out yesterday. Been having stuff going on this week.

Stephen: 1:13

Very, very tired, very, very tired. I don't know why I'm so worn out. Well, I do and I don't. I do and I don't. I'm getting older. It was my birthday this week. I'm 41. Doesn't seem like a year ago, since I did a podcast. How about turning 40,?

Stephen: 1:30

Um time flying this year's gone fast. Um, it's not just like a lack of sleep. Tired, I feel worn out, like drained. Um, yeah, I need some proper downtime, I feel. I feel like I need some, um, really good quality away time and I I hopefully I will get that in December when we go to Scotland. Uh, me and Sarah are going to Scotland for a week, um with with Bert, with the dog, which will be lovely.

Stephen: 2:00

Um, it is unfortunately quite a while away. Well, I say quite a while, it's like six weeks away, which is scary because my big project to work commissions at Christmas and Okay, so that was an example of me choking on my own saliva, which I do quite a lot, so sorry for your ears. Um, let me take a drink of tea. It's a weird thing I do. I think I've talked about it before on the show. Excuse me again. Um, this is going to be a great episode. Um, yeah, so I just feel really worn out and I'm hoping that December holiday will really supercharge me back to life and, um, a week in a forest chilling out, I'm hoping it will be, um, what I need, what I need, um, but I'm just, uh, just tired this week because I've been working obviously quite hard, quite hard, well, very hard. I've got lots of stuff going on.

Stephen: 3:13

Monday and Tuesday I was travelling to Manchester and back Long days. Wednesday, I travelled to Manchester in a car. Long days in a car Travelling to Manchester is terrible. It should really only be like 40 minutes in a car, really realistically 45 maybe, and it takes like two hours most of the time due to traffic. It's not very good. It's not very good, yeah.

Stephen: 3:41

So and then my brother's fell ill. He's been in A&e and he's still in hospital right now waiting on operation. So he's stable, it's good. He's just waiting on operation. He's got pancreatitis because of his gallbladder. Um yeah, so that's not the greatest news. So I've been driving back and there, back forth there, and then sarah's going in hospital this week as well. She's. She's not very well. She got a bit of wheeze and even exasperation of her cf symptoms. So she's gone in hospital this week as well. She's not very well, she's got a bit of wheeze and a bit of an exasperation of her CF symptoms. So she's gone in hospital and she's in there. So driven there and back.

Stephen: 4:18

And then yesterday, for pleasure, I went to see the British Superbikes down in Bronze Hatch, which is like 248 miles away from where I am. Like anyone listening in America's probably thinking that's nothing, is it like? That's like the next town over, but in the UK that's quite far like that's the northwest to the southeast. So, yeah, it was quite a long drive there. Worth it, spectacular, racing the British Superbikes. And then we drove back, which is it's always the downside when you go somewhere, isn't it? You've got to drive back.

Stephen: 4:52

The weird thing, I think, is it always seems less time when you drive back. I think it's because you've got less anxiety. I don't know if that's true. There must be some sort of psychological or scientific, maybe, reasoning behind it, but I always think it's because when you're driving there, you're excited and your anticipation, the anticipation's mounting, and you're anxious that you're gonna be late, etc. And then, driving back, you're more relaxed, aren't you? So I think, because you're more relaxed, time is perceived in a different way.

Stephen: 5:22

I don't know, that's my theory, but a lot of my theories haven't panned out. They haven't panned out, you know, uh, I'm not a theory theoriologist. Uh, I don't even that's the word. Is that the word? I don't know, don't care. Um, that's an idea that might not pan out for me. Um, case in point anyway, yeah, so, so I just feel really, really drained, um, and the main reason for that is because I just give and give and give and give and give and I don't properly relax. I don't let myself, I don't give myself a break half the time and even when I'm meant to be relaxing, I'm not relaxing because I'm being anxious about relaxing. It's a vicious circle.

Stephen: 6:02

But as as weird as it sounds, with Sarah in hospital I can like try and tidy some of my stuff up because I can spread it around a bit. I can spread it around a bit. She's not here. I can spread, spread my shit around and get it, get it. I have to expand stuff. I've told you this before. I have to expand everything to see it. I have to get it all out and look at it and figure out in my head what I'm going to do and then come up with a plan for that or a temporary solution, and then pack it all away again and wait 17 months until I get the energy to actually do the solution I've talked about. I'm moving ahead.

Stephen: 6:44

I'm moving forward on this at the moment because I have kitchen cupboards in my bedroom, which may sound weird, but it was the easiest, cheapest solution at the time when I was moving in. It may not be the best solution for what I need now, but at the time it was, and I'm not going to remove it. It would be far too much work and, to be fair, I just need to modify the solution now. So I've got like four normal base units, and the middle one is like a thin one, and it fits quite well. To be fair, it fits really well. I was quite pleased when I knew that four units would fit with us with the, you know, the thin.

Stephen: 7:21

I don't know what they use them for. It's like a wine rack or dishcloths or bottle storage, I don't know. But I've got a thin one in the middle which is kind of annoying. It doesn't really serve that much of a purpose. So I'm gonna have to kind of like try and define what that's for. At the moment I've got a technical drawing board shoved in it with some thin things, so I'm gonna try and define what I'm gonna use that for, I think. I think it might end up being I might put a shelf halfway up it. I might use it for folder storage or book storage or, I don't know, some Lego set storage, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know anything. I'm going to use it for something, though, because it needs utilising.

Stephen: 8:01

But the other four. One of them's got my printer at the bottom. I'm going to do something with that because I want to be able to move the printer and stuff in and out, because I want to be able to move the printer and stuff in and out. And I've got a couple of shelves. In the other one some random stuff on which is going to be ratified at some point with my other solution I'm coming up with.

Stephen: 8:15

So what I'm thinking of doing is the thing I'm leaning on currently is an extension of my desk, because when I built this, I wanted to have like an area like where the kitchen work surface would be. Apparently this is what we're talking about today, by the way. Um, where the kitchen work surface would be, I just built myself like a my own work surface out of mdf uh, really really rough and ready, like layered like. Uh hollow, like layered like sheets of mdf with a topper, so it's technically hollow inside. Um, 20 mil, 20 mil um mdf, so there's like I think there's like four layers of that, so it's about 80 mil thick. So in inches, about four inches just under, and there's a big work space.

Stephen: 8:58

But I knew that I'd fill that with crap. I knew I'd put display items on it, potentially like computer arms, which is which is what I've done so well done, steve, for knowing yourself. And so I built on rails, like on a drawer, like a desk extender. Why I didn't really think about it is I thought I could put a keyboard on it and put the keyboard to one side. What you actually want to do is you want to shove the drawing with a keyboard on it, but I didn't leave enough room for that. But what the actual thing was for it was more for an extension of the desk, so I could build Lego models, so I can have the set on the work surface side and I can extend this desk and use it as, like a kind of desk extension. How many times do I have to say desk extension, jesus, but yeah, so the downside is that it doesn't really function.

Stephen: 9:43

So I'm going to router some. I'm going to router it out basically into some little pots for Lego pieces and I'm gonna route the main bit out so it's deeper, so I can actually, if I'm ever making Lego or doing anything, I can actually shut it with the things in it. And I've built a. I've bought from underneath another, another pullout. What would you call it a pullout draw out what you call it a pull out drawer, which is like an under an under drawer, an under table drawer for a keyboard and mouse which will actually will fit them on. I can close them with mouse on so that'll hide them, so they won't be on my desk. Good solution I've bought up more the runners for the second cabinet is what I'm going to do is make three pullout drawers or three pullout foam insert drawers and the idea of this is I've say I've got like my Lavier mics.

Stephen: 10:43

They're in a little container so I can. I'm gonna put like 20 mil MDF and a layer of foam on top and I'm going to pre-cut the foam out into the design of all the little things I want to insert. So one of them will be audio equipment. So there'll be my Lavier mics, there'll be maybe a microphone, maybe a couple of microphones, know, maybe a couple of microphones um, I don't know random anything to do with audio basically and electronics. And you know, uh, like my digital recorder, my task cam digital recorder, uh, so I can, I can slide it open, grab the thing I need and and it's just there and I can take it out, the case, in in in the foam and leave the case in situ and just use the object. Or it's a grab and go situation where they're already in situ in the case and grab and just use the object. Or it's a grab and go situation where they're already in situ in the case and grab and go, and there's gonna be another one that's gonna have um, like general electronics on, so you know my label maker and other things.

Stephen: 11:41

Another third one which I don't know what's gonna be on. Just it's all gonna be about the arrangement, how I arrange them, how much I can get on each one, and I think that's the best way because it's all about retrievability and not putting things the way my brain works. If I put things in a drawer, they die. Drawers, as Adam Savage says, drawers are where things go to die. And drawers are great if they're organised, like I've got my Lego drawers and I know what's in them. I've got drawers in the garage, know what's in them and things aren't going to die in there, because the things I don't use very often. So I've got like a, like a hot gun. You know a big, massive SDS drill. You know sanding tools and all that sort of stuff. I don't use it all the time, but I know where they are and they're in their own drawers still. Go through and properly arrange it. Oh, just coughed again. I managed to mute myself then, so you're welcome. Yeah, and I think three layers of that above each other, I think I'd be able to get most of my items that I'd use daily for podcasting etc. On a first order retrievability, to quote Adam Savage again, and then it'll allow.

Stephen: 12:52

The idea is to keep my desk area as clear as possible and a nice clean space, because I want to record video on my podcast. My god, I've got a cough today, I need to drink more water, and we've all seen the YouTube videos. People record a video and it looks really, really pristine and the desk areas are clear and there's LED lights and blah, blah, blah, and I kind of I'm aiming for that and I want to achieve it fully. There'll always be some random piece of crap in the background, I'm sure, but I kind of want to like, and for my own benefit of just having a nice tiny workspace as well, but if I'm gonna record, I want to kind of make it look nice and professional and, and you know, just just have it look nice, you know. Yeah, for my own benefit as well, obviously, because if it's tidy it's nice for me and I can come in and find stuff.

Stephen: 13:44

But I think I think, having thought about the pullout draw situation, it'll look really cool. I feel like it'll look really cool. I feel like it'll look like a Batman utility drawer Minus Batarangs. It'll just have like random crap in it and then it'll mean that it's a space for storage that's easy to get to and easy to see, because it's like pull, put it out, pull the drawer out, oh, that's what to get to. And easy to see because it's like pull, put it out, pull, pull the drawer out, oh, that's what's on that one.

Stephen: 14:14

And I can label things as well. Label making, um, yeah, so god, this, this chair's so squeaky I don't know if it comes across in the mic, um, I think it does sometimes, but it's really squeaky, it's very annoying. Um, yeah, and I can, I can literally have my things where I need them. Uh, uh, one, one layer. Maybe I've got my little Akai little keyboard that would fit nicely in a, in a little phone pocket. Um, yeah, so it's, it's, it's all about. It's all about getting that right kind of balance between, um, tidiness and being able to get stuff quick as well. I was gonna have like a charging station. That's kind of where this idea came from. I was gonna have a charging station.

Stephen: 14:55

I've moved some stuff around the room, moved a set of, I've moved my Lego stuff basically to the door, swapped it over with a little Ikea square box kind of storage thing which I put on wheels and that kind of blocks where the printer is. So the idea that I put it on wheels is it's not in the middle of the room. I can push it against the wall when I need access to the printer, I can pull it away and get access to the printer, because the end one where the printer is. I don't use the printer very often. Basically, that's the thing, and yeah, that's kind of it. That's kind of it. Oh, and then the other ones just have shelves in them. Probably, to be fair, I've got the one underneath now, the one where my feet go when I'm recording, recording, um, it's full of Lego sets.

Stephen: 15:50

Uh, I was thinking. I was thinking because I should really be doing stuff today. I should be making. I'm off today. By the way, it's Monday and I'm off. I booked today off, which is a good thing to do. I was looking forward to a long weekend. Um, chilling out Saturday, maybe doing some stuff with Sarah and then, you know, going on the motorbike she was meant to go as well and then chill out today as well, um, maybe do a few things, but with how the week's gone out and a bit of stress and late nights, early mornings, I've been up early every single day, late to bed pretty much every single night. Uh, a lot of driving and it's, it's, yes, I've got a bear off me. So, um, I've decided that, you know, today will be another chill day.

Stephen: 16:24

I was going to say Sarah today, she told me not to. She says don't you dare come across. And she didn't say it like that. She's not a man, she's not as gruff as that, maybe she's a bit gruffer, I don't know, she's not. Sorry, sarah. A bit of a strange mood. And she, and she told me to talk to you. She says listen, don't need anything, you have another day to yourself, just chill out and do what you need to do.

Stephen: 16:51

And so I've caught up on the BSB, re-watched the BSB from yesterday, because obviously, when you're watching it live, you can only see one part of the track really. So I watched it from the TV perspective, which was great, watched the last half of the Eagles game, which we won only by by four points, but it wins a win. Hopefully they'll start getting their act together. Always wishful thinking for that. And yeah, just just, I'm just gonna chill. And yeah, lego sets are under here and I'm gonna make one out and make one, or I might tidy some Lego, because I've got still boxes of lego that need sorting.

Stephen: 17:28

Uh, and then the fourth, the fourth cupboard is just full of random, random lego. There's lego everywhere. Basically, um, yeah, so I just, I just need to kind of pull everything out again while Sarah's not here and have a really good, really good think. And before I shove everything back in, I need need to maybe keep some stuff out of the room and just be like right, that's not going in until there's a solution there for it. Um, because the the solutions are are really necessary to keep it tidy.

Stephen: 17:58

My brain will not help me. I need to. I need to find that solution for my brain. It works against me a lot of the time. I'm learning this, the old track, and it's not an age thing, it's not really an age thing. It's literally discovering things about me, and Sarah's helped me with that. Sarah's really pointed some stuff out to me and said this is how you are, and it's also about like masking as well. Like you know, I've kind of denied myself and put on a brave face and not really thought about what's causing the way I'm feeling. So, yeah, it's all a big learning curve, there's a lot of things to unpack, but I'm not going to do it today. Yeah, so I'm hoping that all a big learning curve I'm not going to do it today. Yeah, so I'm hoping that with a big tidy up, that means I can start filming.

Stephen: 18:50

So I tested my Holy Land lavium mics out today on the little live stream. So go to Instagram and have a look at that. I thought it sounded alright to be fair. So I just might have to get my DSLR set up and having a bit of a test over the next couple of weeks and then hopefully, maybe, maybe in a few episodes, there may be a premiere of a video episode, not just like a, the ones that we've had, the guest videos, because I know we've technically had videos before, but they've all been online.

Stephen: 19:21

This is the one where I actually film, the podcast, just me, you know, live. Well, it'll be live at the time. You won't have it live because you listen afterwards. I don't know why I needed to explain that. Yeah, so I'm going to go because I'm just wrapping and I'm tired. I'm so tired.

Stephen: 19:41

I need to eat healthier as well. That will help some vegetables in my diet I'm making tired. I need to eat healthier as well. That will help Some vegetables in my diet. I'm making a massive pasta bake tonight With loads of vegetables, all of the vegetables. I'm looking forward to that. I'm going to go for the toilet, not that you need to know that. That was unnecessary to tell you, sorry, I apologise for that as well. Anyway, anyway, what is my life? Thank you very much for listening. I'll speak to you soon and keep rattling. You've been listening to Infinite Rattle. Thanks for listening. If you liked this episode, go back and listen to some others and please continue to listen listening. Your support is much appreciated. Please like, share, comment and subscribe, and I'll speak to you all again soon. Take care.